Welcome back to the Techtalk blog! Please enjoy our next post below from our Academic Technology Services and Innovation Manager, Mark Jenkins.
A quick introduction – I’m Mark Jenkins, the Manager of Academic Technology Services and Innovation (ATSI). As I have spoken to folks across campus during my initial months here, I have come to realize that while many people know what ATSI was, many think that it disappeared during the pandemic.
That’s not true, but, as in many units, staff were lost and the scope of ATSI activity was necessarily limited. Behind the scenes, the support work of Dawn Lloyd, Brad Kerr, Maria Erb, and the rest of the IS team continued. It’s remarkable how that group held things together through a challenging time.
Forward to 2023 and the decision was made to re-establish a permanent leadership position in ATSI – that’s how I find myself on this amazing campus. Since I arrived, my priority has been to set some modest but important short-medium term goals for ATSI and to learn as much as possible about the culture of teaching and learning at UP.
The goal most immediately relevant here: improve users’ experience of Moodle and its related tools. Make Moodle more accessible and inclusive, provide better data insights about how it serves teachers and learners, and improve its abilities in areas most prioritized by UP’s faculty. Faculty exploring innovative teaching methods will find attentive listeners and thought partners in ATSI.
Immediately, for Spring Semester, we’re upgrading Moodle to a similar but more streamlined version of the platform. We believe that this upgrade represents a noticeable improvement in the user experience, and we’ll be holding drop-in sessions and publishing user guides to ease you through the changes. You’ll be hearing much more about that in the coming weeks.
For Spring Semester we’re adding SmartEvals integration to Moodle to improve student response rates. Additionally, we’ll add the Namecoach plugin to Moodle. This is a tool that assists faculty in correctly pronouncing students’ names. We’ll be posting “quick start” style guides to help faculty learn about the new tools and how they might help.
In the meantime, I am relying on Terry Favero of the Center for Teaching and Learning to introduce me to as many of the faculty at UP as possible and give me the opportunity to listen to everyone’s needs and concerns. This process is ongoing. I’m grateful for these conversations, and they will shape my job going forward.
Additionally, we are doing the same work that was done so well before I arrived: technical support and assistance for Moodle, Boost, WordPress, and Mediaspace, and instructional design support for faculty course developers.
What do I bring to the table? I am in my 25th year of supporting technology enhanced learning in widely differing contexts, and my 40th year of working in higher ed as a teacher, curriculum developer, administrator, and technology manager. My current areas of professional interest are competency-based learning, digital badges, alternative assessment methods, and inclusive teaching strategies. I have an active academic interest in understanding how technological systems actively shape the ways we conduct social discourse and what “digital literacy” looks like in that context.
My academic background is in Literature & Cultural studies, with an emphasis on representations of science and technology in fiction, film, and digital media. I have designed and taught courses in writing, literature, and cultural studies in University and Community College settings. I’ve been the lead developer of degree programs in Cultural Studies, Real Estate Studies, and chaired online competency-based programs in Business and Organizational Communication. After several years in a state community college system agency, I am happy and grateful to feel the rhythms of campus life again.
Feel free to contact me directly with any questions about the future of ATSI. You’ll be seeing and hearing more about the improvements to Moodle very shortly; in the meantime, continue to address your support and requests for consultation to help@up.edu.
